As CAMSCO Music, I have a booth at several folk festivals. Unfortunately, some of the festivals I have been attending seem to be vanishing. I'm looking for more to replace them.

Inasmuch as I take a few thousand CDs, plus some books, DVDs and so forth to each festival I'm limited to festivals within, say, five hours of central New Jersey (I can't see taking a quarter-ton of CDs in a plane). I'm further limited by the nature of my catalog---heavily traditional, but not specializing in any one aspect of tradition (which pretty much excludes festivals devoted to blues or bluegrass or old-timey or Irish music.

I mentioned NEFFA, Old Songs, and the Getaway, as Dick did. We used to also do two small festivals near Washington for the FSGW, but one has ceased and the other was snowed out this year. We used to go to NOMAD, but that died a few years ago. We were considering Champlain, but it is down to one day this year and is too long a trip for one day to be worth it.

As Dick said, we need festival with a sizable traditional folk audience, where the festival welcomes CD vendors. Several festivals have one preferred local CD vendor or sell only performer CDs.

We might also consider a folk camp type week, which could be a little further away, if we did not need to stay at the table all the time. It is nice to get to hear music.

Any suggestions of which festivals to consider? And if you run a festival, would you welcome us?

This will likely sound astoundingly counter-intuitive, but you would probably be welcome at the annual Northeast Filk Convention, which rotates between the DC, NY, and Boston areas. There are plenty of us who enjoy traditional folk and Celtic music as well as filk, so the economics could actually work out, as long as the particular convention had space available. And unlike some of the festivals you alluded to, we're not very particular about what dealers choose to sell.

Heck, I could even probably tell you exactly what to have on hand, based on what *I've* bought from CAMSCO at Getaway and MiniFest.

the folk alliance national/international conference was just held recently in mamphis (as i believe it is every year) there are regional conferences around the country each year as well. Perhaps there is a chance that some artists in your catalog would be attending/performing at one of these. they can be reached at http://www.folk.org/

this conference focuses on providing a forum where performers, presenters, recording comapnies, radio broadcasters, etc can network.

Charley - Phily has its own preferred CD provider and is not open to others.

NEFFA is (if I have it right) the New England Folkdance Festival (or & Folkmusic) Association. NEFFA (and the now defunct NOMAD) were originally dance festivals, but the music components have gotten to be almost as large as the dance component.

Oddly enough, you might give some thought to the Delaware Valley Bluegrass Festival put on by the Brandywine Friends of Old Time Music at the Salem County Fairgrounds near Woodstown.

I used to attend regularly and I remember a surprisingly varied collection of vendors.

The Bourquins, Chantal and Mike, set up shop as Flop Eared Muse and always had a very eclectic selection of musical offerings that included folk, celtic, bluegrass, old time, blues,etc. They always did well. Haven't been back in years. Don't know if they still show up.

Dick, I recall a few years back attending a Scottish music festival around Stroudsburg PA. I think it was a ski resort as they had a chair lift. They played mainly Irish and Scottish music and one singer had painted his guitar with the Irish flag and Scottish flag. There were also more kilt wearers than I have ever seen in Scotland on Burns Night. Bill

Thanx, Russ We go to the NJ Folk Festival when it does not conflict with NEFFA, which it often does. It is a free festival and most of the audience are not even folkies, and certainly not TRAD folkies. When we go, I am more interested in the crafts than the music, which is usually very light on the trad side.

Despite the name, it's not strictly a dance event, although dance and dance music is a significant component. There are many song and singing sessions, instructional workshops, etc, and the jamming in the hallways and lobby is great and usual very "trad" in one form or another.

Susan and Dick, I believe if you update your info on Champlain you'll find that it's back yo Fri, night thru Sun., but has relocated to Waterfront Park in downtown Burlington. I do think this will impact attendance, although in which direction is hard to tell.

I second Russ' suggestion of Common Ground on the Hill, having just been there this past weekend. Very nice festival, quite a few vendors. They sell performers' CDs at the Festival's own tent, but I can't imagine they'd object to another music vendor at this festival which is heavily geared toward traditional folk. They also run "Traditions Weeks" on either side of the Festival, consisting of classes in all kinds of folk arts. No idea what they do -- or don't do -- as far as vendors go for those weeks. But do check out the Festival.